L conquers all
by noeru K
Summary: A challenge fic by artemisgirl.


**A Challenge Fic set by ****artemisgirl.**

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**The criteria are listed below. **

**Disclaimer: Do not own DN or any of the characters except the minor ones.**

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We all know that L's a mysterious guy - no real name, no apparent parents, untold brains behind his scraggly hair... but how DID L come to be the world-reknowned detective he is?

Your story should include just how L came to be who is is today, however you go about it. Any genre, pairings optional.

Rules:

1. L MUST be alive in the story - Mello and Near may be included, but L must still be alive (pre chapter 58)

2. LIGHT YAGAMI must be a main character in the story, like in the manga. His degree and details of involvement are up to you.

3. MATSUDA must make at least one appearance and comment on what's going on.

4. The story must have a HAPPY ending. No L-dying, no unresolved angst, etc. HAPPY endings.

Ideas you may choose to include:

Light finding L's diary

The history of L at the Wammy house

Flashbacks during a normal story

L meeting someone from his past

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L was plugged into his computer, large owlish eyes peeking from beneath sooty, scraggly hair. He was typing away so fast on the keyboard that his fingers were just a blur. Raito watched on, finding himself observe how the famous detective would softly brush the groove of the keys with the tips of his brittle fingers as if he did not want to dirty them. Raito could not place exactly why, however, at that moment, he felt a strong, passionate urge to disturb L's hypnotic movements on the laptop.

Raito bent forwards, purposefully letting a paper from the stack he had on his desk, to drift onto the ground. He picked it up, and as expected, one of L's hands jerked from the flat keyboard and stretched towards Raito because of a cold, metal chain. L's arm stuck out at a peculiar angle and he was forced to gaze at Raito with annoyance. "Yagami-kun," he said firmly, blinking once or twice, "please be considerate. I am almost at the brink of forming a new hypothesis."

Raito quite surprised himself, to be accurate. He did not know what made him cause that disturbance, yet under the pale, workaholic's gaze, he allowed none of the surprise to show on his face. Instead, he was able to assemble a sheepish grin on his face as he placed the paper in front of him casually. "Ah, sorry Ryuuzaki. I was a bit careless," Raito turned his eyes to the piece of paper with data printed in microscopic size and internally suppressed a sigh. It had been four gruelling days since he had been handcuffed to the scruffy detective, in a dark basement that L had deemed was the new 'Kira-searching environment'. Toilet-breaks, idleness and any show of discomfort was frowned upon by the gangly teen and Raito had not been keen to ask for such a break as a toilet-break as it was increasingly becoming awkward…chained to another of the same gender did not help such matters.

L's large dark-rimmed eyes stared searchingly at Raito but as Raito had calculated, he found nothing and swivelled his eyes back to the computer screen. Raito felt resigned and was about to return to his large amount of paperwork when Matsuda swept into the _Kira-searching _environment "You guys still at it?" he asked cheerfully, bringing in a breath of fresh air as the last set of security doors opened and shut. Raito longed for that smell and threw a mean look at L who was still enraptured by the light-emitting screen.

"Matsuda-san," he stated calmly, "aren't you supposed to be with Chief Yagami and the others to retrieve a document I asked for yesterday?". Matsuda froze in his tracks; "Huh?" a look of fleeting dismay crossed his face before he smiled apologetically, "Ahh…sorry Ryuuzaki."

L just turned his chair around, his toes curling and digging into the leather of his seat. He cocked his head to the side, "Taking that into account, I think we can get you to do something. Why don't you…?" Ryuuzaki glanced at a large stack of paperwork to the other side of him and unblinkingly stared at Matsuda who seemed to look horrified at the height and size of the large, towering stack.

"I…uh…_here_!" he announced, a little panicked. "Watari accidentally left it upstairs in your rooms and I thought I better take it before the cleaners came in, _just _in case it was something important. Not that Watari would be that careless…" Matsuda attempted a chuckle and Raito watched on, bemused. That had been a close call.

L was not the type to be diverted from the original subject yet he seemed to think better of pursuing it and eyed what Matsuda held in front of him. It seemed to be a file. It was made of black leather and had gold embossing on one side, gleaming handsomely in the sparse light. "Watari left it?" he muttered sceptically. He stretched out a thin finger to open it at arm's length but dropped it in a gasp of surprise.

"Ryuuzaki?" Raito and Matsuda called in alarm.

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L had always been different. He had known it as far back as he could remember. He had become aware of a lot of things that adults feared and did not seem to understand. They did not understand him and naturally, feared him. L hated that feeling at first, the shadow in the eyes that saw him and no matter how he felt that he changed the words, how much he tried to convey what he knew, they took it in the same stance. They had eyes but could not see…they had ears but could not hear.

Had he been disappointed? It was hard to say. Emotions…were something L was not too familiar in for his liking. He knew what happened of course…there were chemicals produced from glands that stimulated emotions. However, how he felt them was an obscure area and how it affected people was also an area that he was unclear of. It was alien to him and therefore, L could not say.

L did remember though, that he learnt to keep things to himself. Not to point out the obvious. Thinking did not help you…if you wished to survive - you had to adapt. L found it hard to adapt, he found he could not and did not wish to. He had always had a strangely strong sense of justice and with this came his nature. He would not conform to other's beliefs. He was different and they feared him. They beat him and locked him in a cupboard but L was not afraid, he was not hurt. Every beating taught him new things. In a cupboard, L discovered much. In this time, he understood who he was and fear and emotion…

L had never undergone a stage where he thought he did not need emotion. It had just been a strange subject for him and therefore he did not realise it when it slipped through his fingers and became lost. L can truthfully say that all he felt afterwards was contentment…a state that was content and the other when not content. Yes, L only had two states now. When he was content and when he wasn't. There was nothing in between, similar to that of justice. This was justice that L believed in, no shades of grey but black and white. He would make justice.

When he was as tall as the mess hall dining table, L could see the first time Watari appeared in his life. A man with streaks of greying hair and a suitcase, a coat and a hat. There had been nothing special about Watari that L took an immediate interest in him. The thin child had been perched on the end of his collapsing bed, toes digging into the bed to balance himself on the top of such an unstable mattress with his knees hugged to his chest. A thumb rested neatly on his lip and his large eyes were unfocused so that his mind would be focused.

Watari had knocked politely on his door and L had told him to come in with an intelligent, articulate voice. It had been Watari's eyes. Eyes that knew so much but little. It was when he had finally seen them below the brown hat did L store Watari in his mind. Gentle yet cold eyes, calculating but loving eyes. Loving? What was love…? L believed he had been entranced for some time before Watari had opened his suitcase to show him something. A small, wooden puzzle.

The parts to the puzzle had been crudely crafted without many clues to how it was assembled back together. There were no grooves, no telltale signs. L spread them across his bed, eyes alight with contentment. Yes, he was not to be bored. A break from his monotonous daily activities and events. L realised then and there, monotony was the worse cycle that an individual could be trapped under. Many try and escape it. This was L's way…of escaping the world.

_Click_. The last piece locked into place, L rocked on the back of the heels of his foot and gave the completed puzzle back to the man. The man did not seem surprised. This reaction interested L. L did not drop his gaze as the man smiled a little, "That was the fastest I have ever seen someone do it." The man said quietly. He beckoned for L to come closer and L did as he was told. The man smoothed back, untamed black hair to give him something similar to a pat. L was startled but it was over in a moment. "Come to Wammy's house." He proposed gently, "You get to do more of this so that you can be prepared for the real puzzle…"

"The real puzzle mister?" L had asked distantly, "What is that?"

Watari looked questioningly at the child who nodded his head. It appeared he had accepted his proposal for the transfer. Watari stood up and had a hand resting on the handle of the door to leave. "Justice my child…justice."

L had always been different. Wammy's house was different. The children were allowed to talk, allowed to think, allowed to evolve. There were people to listen to them and see them. L learnt the life he was supposed to fulfil when he was ready. He saw the whitewashed walls; the impressive pillared halls and the helicopter launch pad and knew his eyes had been opened to the world. It was a new feeling, a tingling feeling, such as the one he would experience when he consumes sweets in the proper way.

It was fitting, he supposed. The early stages of his life, he learnt the abstract…now he was learning figures. Wammy's house became the launch for L. Within ten years of training at the orphanage, L established himself as the world's top three detectives. He had learnt more with each case solved. About humanity, psychology…emotion. If there had been another side to L, it may have showed repugnance at how much detail L was also able to discover about evil, manifestation and degradation.

It wasn't long before life became locked back into the dreaded cycle of monotony. L found himself increasingly staring at the clock during the hours of the night…pondering…thinking. He may have been lonely…he had felt continuously discontent by himself. Yes, L believed it may have been loneliness. He wondered whether there might have been a case that would demand comradeship and honour and love…expressed as such in literature.

Love. There was that word again. The word that made no sense. That was the first time he had asked Watari to know the whereabouts of his biological parents. It was done in a spur-of-the-moment thing, which was more surprising and L felt himself breaking from the mindset he had willed himself to fit for the span of his earlier life. This broke the contentment and discontentment state and about emotions he thought he had forgotten.

Watari had looked taken aback and had disapproved. He had logically listed the reasons why it was detrimental. For once in his life, L did not want to hear. He wanted to find his parents. Find out about love once and for all. Watari did not understand how such an intelligent person could be so blinded…yet he agreed in the end to let L discover for himself for that was how L learnt…by discovering it by himself. From the moment he was born to the day he would die.

Watari had the file ready for L to read. L decided to meet him at the orphanage where he used to play as a not-so-innocent child. The heavy black file lay on the desk for L to pick up. L reached out to open it but his body did not move as he wished. His hand stopped in mid-air, his air passageways constricted. Ahhh…was this fear?

L licked his dry, dehydrated lips and tried once more. He extended his lithe hand to grasp the file and draw it to him. As he was about to read the first document however, a voice started to reverberate around his head.

"_Such a poor thing…"_

"_A very beautiful yet strange child. He was lying in the gutter you know."_

"_His features are quite unique. However, I fear for his state of mind. Very quiet he is, and when he does speak, it is of strange things."_

"_Odd that the parents would abandon a child so young though. Do you know I found him when he had seemed to have had just been born? His face was still whiskery and he had yet to open his eyes."_

"_Did he not die? Strange…"_

"_A fighter he is…I thought."_

"_Probably doesn't even have a father seeing that he was left to die in a gutter."_

"_I can understand why people do it but if I were a mother I wouldn't."_

"_A mother's love for her child is supposed to be unrivalled."_

"_**Supposed to **__dear…with what I do, you wouldn't be convinced."_

L thought he had long forgotten what the matron and her friend had gossiped about the long years ago. L stilled immediately and withdrew his hand. Watari stared at L for a long period of time, after a prolonged pause he asked, "What is it?"

"I don't care." L finally admitted, something that had stirred within him, quenched.

"I see…" Watari mused.

"Why should I care about my parents who abandoned me? What use is it to seek them when they did not wish for it?" L cocked his head to the side in an irate fashion, "Love is ridiculous. Watari, order the chocolate éclairs I saw yesterday by five in the afternoon please."

He had left soon after.

Children were playing on the grounds; two boys seemed to be quarrelling. A boy with straight, shoulder-length blonde hair was spitting fire at a very cool and collected boy with unnaturally white locks. L stopped before them abruptly and Mello ceased his yelling to suddenly adopt a look of pure and utter glee. "Isn't it L?" he asked, although he was well aware of the code name. Many other boys ambled towards the group in order to view the Wammy House's living legend.

"I haven't seen you in a long while Mello," L stated pensively. He looked at Nia, "You too Nia."

Mello seemed outraged that L had acknowledged his arch nemesis besides him. "L, where are you going?" he asked more loudly than necessary. L crouched down and with a stick started drawing a strange symbol on the ground. "Ha! That's old man's puzzle that he gave to us before we got transferred to Wammy's House isn't it?" Mello asked triumphantly whilst Nia remained silent. L stared at Mello before rummaging in his pocket. A half-eaten chocolate bar was held in his pale hand but Mello's jaw dropped with bliss, "Thank you L!" he took the sticky mess from L and started to chomp away on it before L reverted his gaze to Nia who had not done anything out of the ordinary but move his robot one more step towards Mello.

"There is always a root to a problem. The root is the key to the solution." L tapped the symbol with a stick one last time for emphasis. Nia nodded his head slowly as if in understanding. The quiet air between them was similar to that of a teacher and a disciple. L stood up, back into his hunched position and the other children seemed disappointed to see their idol leaving but L gave them a quick glance and left. That was the last he ever saw of them.

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Matsuda waved a hand in front of L's stilled eyes. "Ryuuzaki! Jeez Ryuuzaki?"

L's dilated pupils flickered and he caught sight of Matsuda who smiled in relief, "Goodness, gave us all a scare there."

L pursed his lips and stared at the file on the floor, "Tell Watari he can get rid of it. It is not significant."

His dark irises roamed over Matsuda's figure and Raito's, which had been oddly predatory in ways of observing L. L felt slight discomfort at showing a moment of weakness and showing himself but he was not angry. He turned back to the computer screen as Matsuda picked the heavy file up and dropped it in the paper bin with a large clunk.

Love, after all…had been conquered by L.

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**noeru K**

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